Flivvers sweep Esky

The Flivvers built early leads in the first two games and held off the Eskymos. Escanaba battled to a 17-17 draw in the third game before Kingsford pulled ahead.

“This was a much better performance than Saturday,” said Coach Steve Andrews, referring to the Great Eight Tournament at Iron River. “We couldn’t do anything right.”

Andrews wanted to see how his young Flivvers would react in the difficult third game. Sammie Zander delivered a pair of spikes at crunch time while Emily Murdock and Lauren Smith also came through.

“They needed a little push back there where they weren’t constantly in front,” Andrews said. “They had to dig deep a little bit, suck it up and play.”

After the third-game deadlock at 17, Kingsford reeled off six points to Escanaba’s two, including a Sydney Gafner slam to make it 23-19.

“They beat us in hitting and our serving killed us,” Eskymos coach Christa Erickson said. “They’re (Kingsford) great hitters with a nice middle and our cover wasn’t there for the blocks.”

She also cited Kingsford’s communication.

“They were talking the whole time on the court,” Erickson said.

Back-to-back kills from Maria Wiltzius helped spark the Flivvers in the first game. She was also a catalyst in the third game with three of Kingsford’s final four points.

Andrews was pleased to see errors didn’t lead to more errors.

“It’s a young bunch and the problem they have is when they make mistakes they get into that ‘self island anger meltdown’ and they can’t come out,” Andrews said. “They know they’re a great attacking team. Their passing is improving every day and still getting better.

“They’re a good team. They have to be able to endure mistakes and stay mentally in it. That takes time but they’re on the right track.”